


Gallagher Family Initiation

by stubliminalmessaging



Series: Fic!February 2015 [13]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Bi!Carl, M/M, nyeheheh, yes that's right there more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 15:21:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3386636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stubliminalmessaging/pseuds/stubliminalmessaging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Have you talked to Ryan about the dinner yet?” Debbie asked Carl. He didn't so much as pause his X-Box game and so Debbie threw a slice of bread at the side of his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gallagher Family Initiation

**Author's Note:**

> sorry about the lateness on these next few. i'm working on catching up by posting two a day, so that valentine's day one is going up later today/tonight.

                “Have you talked to Ryan about the dinner yet?” Debbie asked Carl. He didn’t so much as pause his X-Box game and so Debbie threw a slice of bread at the side of his head.

 

                “Fuck, what do you want?” he snarled, throwing the slice back at her. She caught it and used it to make a sandwich.

 

                “Have you talked to your boyfriend about dinner?” she asked, shoving the three finished sandwiches into separate paper bags. “Fiona’ll kill you if you don’t get him to come.”

 

                “Whatever. I’ll talk to him later,” Carl said. He heard Debbie’s sharp inhale and knew she was going to keep nagging. “Get off my ass,” he said and Debbie huffed but otherwise kept quiet.

 

                Of course he managed to go all day at school and spent a good amount of time with Ryan and never brought it up. He got home from school and scarfed down a pack of poptarts before he remembered he was supposed to talk to Ryan. He got out his phone and wiped the crumbs off his hand onto his pants, then texted his boyfriend.

 

                _hey u busy 2nite?_

 

                He probably could have occupied himself doing something productive while he waited for his boyfriend to text him back. Instead he just sat on the couch eating wayward poptart crumbs he found on his shirt and sucking the sugar off his fingers. His phone buzzed and he unlocked it, leaving streaks on the screen from his sticky fingers.

 

                _no. u wanna get high and make out?_ Carl smiled when he read that message. Ryan knew just what he felt like doing all the time. He typed one back.

 

                _later. my sis wants u to come over 4 dinner_

 

                A couple minutes later Ryan replied. _i’m always in for free food. u alright with it?_

Carl didn’t even have to think about it before he replied. _yeah. my sister wants to meet u, then we can do whatever_

 

 _wanna do you_ ¸ Ryan texted back. Carl smirked and took to his bedroom, wedging his door shut  so that he’d have a little bit of privacy for some sexting with his boy.

 

-

 

                A couple hours later Fiona came home and the first thing she asked was; “Is Ryan here yet?”

 

                Carl didn’t answer right away – he was playing X-Box and apparently neither of his sisters could take a fucking hint – until Fiona came in and stood between him and the TV.

 

                “What?” Carl grumbled in typical teenage fashion.

 

                “When is Ryan coming?” she asked.”Also you can cut the attitude right now. I just want to meet your boyfriend. Is that such a bad thing? What did I do to deserve getting shut out of your life?”

 

                “I’m not shutting you out of my life. Not on purpose anyway,” Carl told her. “You just have never been here when I’ve been hanging out with him. It’s not like I’ve been trying to avoid you. You and him have just never lined up properly,” To avoid getting yelled at more (or worse, a teary blubberfest like his sister did sometimes) he went on. “He’ll be home in like half an hour. His mom wanted to send him over with cookies or something.”

 

                “Oh,” Fiona said. “She... didn’t have to do that.”

 

                “That’s what I said, but apparently his mom wouldn’t let him out of the house without a thing of cookies,” Carl said. He glared at where Fiona blocked the TV as if he could look through her. “Now can you move? I wanna finish this before he gets here.”

 

                Fiona left him alone then, surprised and impressed by Carl. She bustled off to do some more tidying, though there wasn’t much point with a disaster like their place. She recalled the time when Ian had tried to clean Mickey’s old house which had mostly just been him throwing Mickey’s shit out all over the yard. She pushed aside the memory and went back to work cleaning at much as she could.

 

-

 

                Ryan texted Carl before he left his house to let him know he was on his way. Fiona had been hovering between the kitchen and the doorway to the living room and when she saw him looking at his phone it was like an alarm sounded and she went into hyper cleaning mode.

 

                By the time Carl was walking through the kitchen to take a piss before Ryan arrived, he barely recognized it. He doubted even Sheila had done a more thorough job when she’d cleaned it all those years ago.

 

                “Holy shit Fiona,” Carl said when he passed Fiona as she was checking in on the food in the oven. “Would you chill?”

 

                Fiona didn’t respond but once Carl had taken his piss there was a knock at the door. Fiona was straightening her blouse and setting the table when Carl went to let his boyfriend in.

 

                They didn’t exchange kisses or anything and Fiona tried not to stare as she took in Carl’s boyfriend – _Ryan_ , she reminded herself. He was tall and skinny with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His dreads were just long enough to be floppy and despite his dark skin his cheeks and bridge of his nose were a mess of freckles.

 

                Carl didn’t make a move to introduce him so Fiona took it upon herself to initiate the conversation. “I’m Fiona,” she said, offering Ryan a hand. He took it, enveloping Fiona’s little hand in his wide palm and long fingers.

 

                “Ryan,” he said, voice deep. He dropped Fiona’s hand and brought his other hand up, pressing a long plastic container into Fiona’s hands. “These are for your family. My mom baked them. She said we should all go out for dinner sometime.”

 

                “Well I-I, I work at a diner. Maybe we could work somethin’ out, get a discount?” Fiona offered. She imagined Ryan’s family could probably afford to eat at her diner without the discount but she knew well enough that the shame of admitting how poor her family was would be better than the embarrassment of coming up short when it was time to pay the bill.

 

                “Sounds cool. I’ll tell my mom,” Ryan said, right as he an Carl absconded to the other room to play the X-Box.

 

                Fiona got a text from Ian saying they’d be a bit late and that they’d pick up Debbie from work on the way and she felt a bit better. More centered, on track. Kev and V came over on time, supposedly after dropping the twins off with Carol for the night, and presented the box of wine they’d told Fiona they were bringing.

 

                “Hey!” Veronica exclaimed when she saw Ryan. “Put this on the calendar Kev, it’s the one day I’m not the lone black dot on a map of Ireland.”

 

                “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s been being the only black guy in a group of white people,” Ryan laughed. He kept chatting with V and Fiona turned her attention to the door, and to Lip who had just come in with Amanda in tow.

 

                “Hey, Fi. Ian here yet?” Lip asked, looking around at the assembled Gallaghers and honourary ones. “He owes me twenty bucks on a superbowl bet.”

 

                “He texted me to say he’d be late,” Fiona said. “You know. The usual.”

 

                “Oh,” Lip made a crude gesture with the index finger of his right hand and a circle created with his left. “Actually, the way I hear it it’s more like this,” Lip said, revising his gesture to include two of his fingers fucking into the pretend asshole.

 

                “Ew, Lip!” Fiona exclaimed, sideeyeing Ryan but he paid no attention to the group gathered in the kitchen, shoving at Carl as they played together. Hopefully her family shouldn’t scare off what appeared to be a nice boy.

 

                She got a little antsy again when it appeared that Ian and Mickey (and Debbie apparently) weren’t there as she was finishing up dinner.

 

                “Probably doesn’t wanna cough up the cash,” Lip said as he helped Fiona bring the food to the table.

 

                “Go get Liam. We’ll start without ‘em,” Fiona told Lip, making the decision at last. She finished moving the dishes of food to the table as the rest of the family joined her at the extended table. They’d all taken their seats and dug into their first helpings when Debbie burst into the house, throwing her purse down by the door and taking the first empty seat she found. Everyone greeted her including Carl who did it around a mouthful of food, earning a smack in the shoulder from Fiona who sat next to him. Ryan snorted from his other side and said hey to Debbie.

 

                “Where are the boys?” Fiona asked, ignoring Lip grumbling about Ian and money.

 

                Debbie shrugged. “Still in the car, I guess,” she replied, spooning some casserole onto her plate.

 

                Lip made the same crude gesture as earlier right as Ian and Mickey came into the house. They were both red-faced and when Ian said hey he sounded out of breath.

 

                Mickey took a seat and Ian got beers for the both of them before he slid into the seat next to his boyfriend.

 

                “Nice hickey,” Vee said, leaning across the table to push at Ian’s jaw and tilt his chin up, further exposing the red mark low on his neck.

 

                “Thanks, I consider myself an artist,” Mickey said.

 

                Ian shoved her hand away. “Pass the salt?”

 

-

 

                Ryan was chatty, but not annoying. He talked about his family, another big one from a slightly-less-than-shitty neighbourhood than them. He was the third-youngest of five and only he and his younger siblings still lived at home. He liked school well enough and he inadvertently influenced Carl into doing a lot better than he used to. He liked skateboarding and classic rock and he had a part-time job busing tables at a diner.

 

                By the end of the night Mickey and Ryan had exchanged numbers – the weed Ryan was buying off the dealer at school was shitty stuff and he was seriously getting ripped off and Mickey could definitely give him better stuff for cheaper. V was infatuated, though she said he wasn’t white enough for her tastes, and Debbie seemed uninterested since she went to school with him and Carl so there was nothing new about this for her.

 

                Fiona played gracious hostess as best she could and before she knew it, the dinner was at an end and Ryan told them he had to leave – that he had a project to work on. The family turned suspicious eyes on Carl at that, because they had a lot of classes together, but let it go. Ryan said goodnight to everyone, telling them he had a good time and that the food was great. Carl went with to walk Ryan home, even though Fiona and V had hoped for an affectionate parting on the front porch so they could spy on them and finally see a kiss or a hug or something.

 

                Holding hands in this neighbourhood was just asking to have their teeth knocked in so they walked a safe distance apart, shoulders or elbows knocking together every once in a while.

 

                “Was tonight alright?” Carl asked, trying to be nonchalant so Ryan would think he didn’t care. “Like boring as hell but my family isn’t terrible right?”

 

                “Nah, they’re cool,” Ryan laughed. “Your oldest brother’s a dick but everyone else is nice enough.”

 

                Carl felt immense relief. As much as he tried not to care, his family was incredibly important to him and having his boyfriend not hate them was a huge relief.

 

                “Next time you come over we’ll do it when no one’s home and we can do it in every room or something,” Carl suggested. Ryan laughed.

 

                “As great as that sounds, I’d like to just come over for dinner again sometime,” he said, smiling shyly at Carl.

 

                “We watch movies and shit together most nights,” Carl mentioned. “Ian and Mickey and Kev and V are hanging out to watch the second Sin City movie tonight.”

 

                “Sounds like I’m missing out. I haven’t seen that one,” Ryan said, looking disappointed. “Next time? If your family doesn’t hate me?”

 

                “They don’t hate you, man,” Carl said as they rounded the corner and crossed the yard to the back door of Ryan’s place. “Next time. Get a little drunk and Fiona will let you stay over for sure.”

 

                “Sounds good,” Ryan said, stopping at the base of his steps. He smirked down at Carl, his dark eyes twinkling in the streetlight. “Sounds like a _date_ , actually.”

 

                “’Cause that’s what it is,” Carl said.

 

                “So tonight was our first one?” Ryan asked, voice soft. Carl nodded and Ryan backed up the steps, coaxing Carl to follow him. Once they were in the shade of Ryan’s porch Ryan’s hands found Carl’s hips and pulled him close. Carl responded eagerly when Ryan’s lips pressed against his.

 

                They made out for a few more minutes before Ryan eventually pulled back, a hand firm on Carl’s chest to keep him out of kissing distance.

 

                “I really do have to work on a project,” Ryan told him. “So I’ll see you tomorrow in homeroom.”

 

                “I guess,” Carl said, pouty, but he did step back. He returned Ryan’s wave sheepishly and watched Ryan head into his house. When he saw his boyfriend was safely inside he turned and hopped down the stairs, heading back home.

 

                On his way home Carl got a text and he pulled his phone out to check it. it was from Fiona, saying _he’s nice, v says to keep him since he’s a nice black kid. did he hate us or is he coming back sometime?_ and before he had time to type a respond he got another from her that made him roll his eyes. _does he like meatloaf?_


End file.
